It was a baptism of fire For the EWS and organizersIt was never going to be easy, was it? Pulling together a race in the middle of a pandemic on the cusp of Autumn in a high-altitude Alpine village is no mean feat and the EWS rose admirably to the challenge of putting on a race this year.
Zermatt wasn't rescheduled this year so the weather would have hit regardless but there was no way of knowing that the COVID pandemic was coming when the race was first scheduled. Yes, there was a COVID scare after
three people had to be quarantined and tested that left an air of unease in the pits for an afternoon but it's worth noting that the potential contact happened outside of the EWS bubble and the EWS dealt with the issue in an efficient way. With social distancing, bubbles and masks, the race could go ahead in relative normality and bring the fans the racing we've been waiting for all year.
Some riders could have used the EWS-E for extra training timeThe first-ever EWS-E race took place on Friday with 34 riders pitting themselves and their motors against the rocky Zermatt trails. The EWS-E followed its own course, with an uphill power stage testing riders' tech climbing ability alongside the usual gravity-fed offerings we'd expect from an enduro race. However, there were some similarities between the regular EWS-E and EWS, as the Rock 'N' Roll and Lake Link (which was later cancelled in the EWS) trails featured in both routes.
This allowed some racers, such as Jose Borges and Melanie Pugin to get some extra time in on the trails before they entered the EWS race. It's a double-edged sword though as racing twice in a weekend leaves little room for recovery and fatigue can start to creep in. Jose Borges said his hands were hurting all day on Sunday but he battled through the pain to fifth place. Of course, any rider that doubled up was working well within the rules (it's just smart!), but it will be interesting if some riders turn to the EWS-E series in future for some extra trail time.
This was the shortest ever EWS RaceWith a winning men's time of 15 minutes dead and a women's time of 17:21, this was the shortest EWS race ever held. The previous shortest was Colombia in 2018, which also had stages cancelled due to weather, although that time it was mud not snow that caused the cut. Such a short race meant that mistakes were more costly than ever and any mechanical led to a rider dropping way out of contention. Some victims of this were Melanie Pugin and Noga Korem who both looked fast and posted top five stage times but had no opportunity to make up any time after suffering mechanicals on the other stages.
Brits and French are dominating the women's seriesIn Zermatt, only two riders were able to break the Anglo-French domination of the top ten in the women's race with Anita Gehrig in fourth and Miranda Miller in tenth. The French dominating women's enduro is nothing new and we have to go back to 2015 to find a year when the overall wasn't won by either Isabeau Courdurier or Cecile Ravanel but a wave of British riders is going to be challenging them for the top spots this year.
Of course, Isabeau Courdurier is still continuing her perfect streak and took two stage wins and the race but Morgane Charre was not far behind with her new Pivot Factory ride and Ella Connolly made a great return from injury for third. Britain vs France would have made for a great Trophy of Nations but we'll have to settle for watching the riders battle it out as individuals for the rest of the season.
Prepare for a season of Wet Cups and Enduro Wet SeriesWelcome to the new normal. Any international racing we get this year is going to be fraught with anti-COVID measures and, probably, rain. The race calendar is just starting where it would normally finish with mountain towns beginning to gear up for the winter season. Should every race that's currently planned go ahead happen, we'll be verging on November by the time the racing finishes.
As Zermatt, the French Cup in Metabief and even
Stage 1 of the Tour de France proved this weekend, wet weather skills will be crucial for riders this year and riders from damper climates will be licking their chops for some strong results.
Edit: didnt see you say you had no problem with E-bikes. my bad. thought you were trashing them.
Haha, all good man. It's just what i've noticed happen a lot. Husband buys wife e-bike so she can keep up. Wife gets super good super fast and starts lapping the husband. Husband buys e-bike.
Last enduro race I entered, I pedaled the whole damn thing (30 miles, 4000') just to prove the point. End up mid pack in the Expert class.
Bottom line is the battery is doing some of the work for you that is required to accomplish any given task.
Otherwise "Have you ever driven an electric car? You just go faster, you don't work less."
Go ride an eBike. You can absolutely slay yourself on the climbs. They take less time, so you can cover more ground. Yes, you get assist, but you seem to be of the opinion that it is a throttle. It's not.
If this series is properly set up, with the transition times being limited, forcing a solid pace on the climbs, an e-EWS course could and should be extremely physically challenging. Athletes would simply cover more ground than they would otherwise.
I don't care if you do like them. I don't even care if you ride them on "no eBike" trails (assuming you aren't riding like an ass, which applies to non eBike riders too). But the claim of "you work just as hard" is just to make the owners feel better about their justification for riding one. NO, it is not just as much work. It NEVER will be because that is EXACTLY the point of having a battery, to remove the work.
The battery and motor are absolutely doing work for you.
I haven't ridden with my 73 year-old dad for ten years because he has a muscle wastage disease but today we did 2000ft of climbing together on wilderness MTB trails because he's bought an ebike. I can tell you he was putting in the same effort he usually does, only the assistance meant he could go where I went on my regular bike and enjoy some great views and amazing descents. It was an absolute game changer for both of us.
That is not to say that consequently the E-bike rider couldn't go farther, ride more, and expend the same energy EVENTUALLY, but that's comparing apples to oranges. It's just not the same thing. I agree with chriskneeland when he said that an Ebike essentially DOES have a throttle - it's just a throttle that is controlled by your feet, (that due to electronic controls will not activate unless you are also inputting force).
I think e-bikes can have their place, but we just shouldn't delude outselves into thinking we're doing the same amount of "work" as a buddy pedalling along beside us who doesn't have a motor on his bike.
If you want to bring in equations, we should probably we looking at power- f x d/time. How long it takes to get the thing moved from A to B matters. But even if we kept your example to just work, the force side of the equation could be less on an eBike, but the distance side is generally greater. So it balances out.
Regarding throttles, unless you consider all pedals throttles, even on bikes that don't have an assist, I think you are mistaken. An eBike can't just accelerate without effort from the rider like a car, motorcycle, or any other vehicle with an actual throttle (Unless you consider "walk mode" a throttle).
Nobody thinks that the eBike buddy is doing the same work an analog (?) bike rider is doing, when they ride together. That's why we make them carry the beer.
Personal preference
I'm not going to do a dick measuring contest on who is the better rider. I enjoy my riding at my level. But if you want to get an idea of how much I ride, assuming you are riding at my XC race pace (which is quick, but not amazing, and non assisted) then you are riding double digit percentages less time than I am. I prefer to go by hours as an hour on my 170mm, 40 pound Enduro won't get me nearly as far as an hour on my road bike.
It must be costly to put on these events, and then not to film some of it and get a guy with an iPhone to host it seems like a marketing fail.
GMBN is the 2020 media partner.
youtu.be/PCnv7nIpFWE
Edit: Sarah's podcasting, then following up w the dev team to get everything dialled.